I bought a controller after reading some reviews and just offer my opinion here, only after about an hour or 2 playing HiFi Rush, since the game does not support wired DualSense. And following is compare it to DualSense.
- The controller feels really light compare to DualSense, it's not a bad thing but if you are using more sturdy cable instead of those soft cable you might feel the cable drag more.
- the textile feels okay, not as good as DualSense one but it rough enough and won't slip around. You can feel the dot pattern that helps the controller stay fixed with that extra friction. I am no engineer in this area but if DualSense feel slippery, this will definitely feel better if not too rough. My honest opinion is that maybe it will feel better after use more time with our hand grease etc.
- The stick cap have good grip BUT your skin bits will get trapped on it. From the look of it after I test the polling rate and play some of my palm skin are stuck on the left stick cap and it looks really hard to clean off because of the pattern it used. Might need to buy stick cap rubber just to make it easier to clean.
- the face buttons are mechanical, as my first controller that has this feature I have to say it does require sometime to get use to compare to majority that use membrane buttons. Your muscle memory will play tricks to you as how far/hard you need to press and would mess up timing for games like HiFi Rush. So even though it's more precise and less prone to sticky button like membrane ones, you do have to test it out to see if it's what you can work with. If you play between PS5 games and the PC games using different type of buttons it might be a bit problematic. But they are really responsive microswitch and doesn't really need much force to push.
- trigger is really light, since it's also haul effect, the tension is probably similar to DualSense without the game default status, but since PC game probably don't have standard to utilize those trigger resistance thing, I probably need to find the app to config how heavy the trigger should feel if they offer that option.(as this controller seems to provide trigger vibration, which means it should be able to adjust the trigger resistance. )
- It does come with 2 back button you can map to any of the existing buttons. I didn't enable them yet and might use them in the future.
- There are no windows app to do the settings. There are short cut keys to allow you to switch between different modes or bind buttons but more detailed settings does require the phone app.
- The controller come with latest firmware already. No 1000hz polling rate yet. It's pretty consistent and close to 500Hz when I use the gamepadla test.
- The LED on the controller home button is really bright, if you like to play in the dark it's gonna be a bit distracting. I will probably use a sticker to reduce it's intensity. You do need the led to show you what status it's in when your try to pairing and use with phone app or other device, like switch, so removing the led is not a good idea. But I am going to use this controller mostly wired so I guess I can tape it.
Things to look out for?
- how long it actually last as the sensor don't drift doesn't mean the springs etc won't degrade.
- as mentioned in many reviews, the dpads are not as good. if you play fighting game with a pad this is not for you.(very easy to miss diagonal) I don't play fighting games on a gamepad so I am fine with it.
- connector quality, this is also something that could get worse over time, and won't know it until it starts to break. But from initial use, it does hold the USB C quite firm and well.